26 Effects Of Social Media On Youth, Society And Business

Updates: 04/10/2019

It is estimated that there are 80 percent of teen Internet users. So, it is no wonder our real world social lives are seeing some changes. Social media is the driver behind that connection. It is about sharing and broadcasting your life online, conversing with friends as well as strangers. Yet, there are both positive and negative effects of social media that many people do not aware of. This article will help you understand clearly about the effects of social media on society as well as individuals. Check out all of them!

I. Effects Of Social Media – Top Positive Effects Social Networks Have On You

1. Keep In Touch

If you have relatives, who live far from countryside, social media or networking is a great tool for connecting people together. You can touch in touch with your family and friends by using social network. You may connect with them by sharing photos, messages, videos, etc. It was difficult to contact with people in far distance, however, it is easier for you to keep in touch with people in another country through Internet.

For students and teachers, the effects of social media are so huge. You can go to Internet and learn or exchange knowledge. Also, there are lots of topic and sources that you can get there. By using those topics, you can have great subjects and topics for discuss to improve knowledge at school.

3. Effects Of Social Media – Save Time And Money

Obviously, you can stay at home and do some works and search some useful information without going to book store or going to college. Older people can get more certificates via online courses. Teenagers or youth improve knowledge just with network at their home. You even can buy products through sites.

4. Friends

Of course, this is the first and foremost positive effects of social media that everyone can realize. It has never been easier to make friends than it is right now thanks to social media. Just several decades ago, it was rather tough for people to connect with each other if they did not go out and make conversation with others.

However, today, with the changes of technologies, connecting people is so easy. It is totally possible to have thousands of friends on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. Though they might not be friends that you know on your personal level or spend time with in your daily life, they are still friends. Social media can help you as well as people all over the world make and keep friends without having to go out.

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5. Empathy

On the social networking sites, we tend to share our lives, both the ups and downs, with those people we think will care. They will listen to what you have posted and assist you in dealing with problems you are facing.

The point here is that, because all of us share both good and bad things on social networking sites, then we will be able to empathize with each other. Sometimes, a friend who used to pass through the situation you are facing with, then they will give you advice or inform you how they got through that.

6. Boost Communication

In the busy society, the time is being stretched by family as well as work commitments, yet social media will offer people a chance to communicate in the effective and quick way. You just need to write an update in just about 20 seconds, then that update will reach to your friends you wish it to reach instantly.

There is no doubt to say that social network could lead to the formation of new relationships. This can put you in touch with those people who you have a lot of common things with, and that will be starting point for long-lasting relationships. Also, networking sites could help foster friendships and perhaps more besides.

Due to the “sharing” option, social networking sites gives people a chance to share informative articles, videos with each other. Moreover, it can help them reach out to their coaches, academic experts, and teachers easily and collaborate with their peers on school subjects.

9. Effects Of Social Media – Encourage Community Participation

Via forums, people, in general, and teenagers in particular, can contribute their own opinions as well as thoughts on certain subjects and themes that interest them. By taking part in discussions, they will engage in positive self-expression.

10. Improve Self-Confidence

In fact, Facebook good comments and likes tend to be strongly positive. In those pick-me-up days, people can check their personal profiles and automatically get affirmation, self-confidence, self-esteem, and validation. In other words, because teenagers personalize their profile; thus, they might experience a sense of independence. Aside from being able to share their own ideas, or interacts with other people, they also participate in groups that help them “fit in” as well as foster their identity.

II. Effects Of Social Media – Top Negative Effects Of Social Networks

1. Addiction

That is a truth; social medial can let you be addictive. You can spend hours on the Internet, read news, play games, or work on that. Many people particularly cannot go far away from the computer. Instead of learning on social sites, youth can use network to do other works and they can stay with Internet all day long.

It is undeniable that Internet gives us opportunity to approach new technology as well as modern life. However, social media can increase risks of violence and sex abuse due to some sites. Teenagers or youth watch videos, read bad news will relate to negative action.

3. Effects Of Social Media – Increased Threats

One of the negative effects of social medial is increased threats. Along with some advantageous effects from it, social networking will increase negative sides. The reason is that people consider social media as a place to share too much personal information. This is a good opportunity for threats increase. As the result, be careful with everything you upload or download.

4. Increased Comparison

Increases comparison belongs to common negative effects of social media on youth. Actually, you can find lots of information affecting to your life and work. So you will have comparison and that is a negative effect. This action will change your behavior and increase bad comparisons to other people.

5. Effects Of Social Media – Increased Alcohol Use

A study reports that there is a close relationship between drug or alcohol use, social media, and teenagers. 70% of teenagers use tobacco, alcohol. Sitting in front of computer and they tend to use more alcohol and tobacco. This routine can be increased after you join some clubs or learn from many websites on the Internet.

Do you believe that using social media can reduce your moods and it can make you unhappy? There are many reasons that can make you unhappy when using too much social networks. Simply, online relations will not last as you have a true relationship with friend in true life.

There is a trend to almost of the users when they use social media – overwork for your brain. If you use Internet in almost of free time, you will increase tasks for your brain and cause tiredness. Your brain cannot have enough capacity to control and manage all the tasks.

8. Effects Of Social Media – A Fall Sense Of Connection

Though social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter boost the connections among people, they still bring a fall sense of connection to some of them. According to some studies, social media sites could make it more difficult for people to distinguish the meaningful relationships they foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed via social media. Through concentrating too much of the psychic energy as well as time on those less realistic and meaningful relationships, your real and most critical connections will steadily weaken.

9. Reduced Productivity

Today, while a lot of businesses use social networking websites to look for and communicate with customers, those sites also provide a huge distraction to employees who might show more interest in what their friends are posting than their tasks. As a result, they will be less productive than normal. Though new technology products have become available which allow social networks to be blocked, yet their effectiveness remains spotty.

As mentioned above, comments and likes on Facebook can boost your self-esteem, but in some cases, it also affects negatively your self-esteem, too. Specifically, they singled out the blow to their self-esteem that comes from comparing themselves to peers on Facebook and Twitter as the greatest downfall. People often look at others’ social networking sites, admire their clothes, lifestyles, or even relationships. Sometimes, they wish their own lives were as great as others. This problem is not taken into consideration and people will end up feeling miserable which could at times, lead to low self-esteem, and depression.

11. Effects Of Social Media – Cyber-Bullying

Cyber-bullying has become a main issue for teenagers in recent years. The immediacy supplied by social media is available to predators and friends. The devastation of the online attacks could leave deep emotional scars. In some well-publicized cases, victims might be driven to suicide. The anonymity afforded online could bring out dark impulses which may otherwise be suppressed. Cyber-bullying is popular among youth in recent days.

12. Spend More Money

It is said that heavy social media use may be correlated to lower self-control that marketing experts commonly believe will lead to higher spending. Ultimately, how people counteract this is by increasing their self-awareness.

13. Effects Of Social Media – Distraction

One of the main disadvantages of social networking is the distraction in daily life. The majority of people could not go an hour without checking for updates and this could cause us to get distracted from what is actually important in life. Therefore, instead of concentrating on work, family, and school, people tend to spend the majority of their time on looking for the status updates, photographs, or headlines. Though social networking can help people learn as well as grow, it still causes distracted because it is quickly changing from a platform where they communicate with other people into a platform where people advertise themselves to others.

14. Effects Of Social Media – More Comfortable, Less Sensitive

Another negative effects of social media has had on young people is they are being more comfortable online doing things that they should be more sensitive to doing. In fact, sexting is a common example of how comfortable teenagers are online. A lot of teenagers today are not too comfortable to engage in physical sexual activity in person with sexual activity online with others. Teenagers think that they are safe behind their computer display or mobile phone, so they can post semi-, even nude pictures easily. Or, in some cases, they engage in sexual conversation via Facebook chat or texting yet would not be too comfortable to have such conversations in person. Of course, not every teenager does that, but many are. Regardless of the kind of communicating, bullying or sexting, teenagers might be more comfortable doing those stuffs behind the screens than they might do in person. In recent days, social media has made that easier for young people to do those kinds of stuff than ever before.

15. Alter The Appetite

This seems so strange when it comes to negative effects of social media on the human life. However, it has its own reason. “Food porn” photos could activate the brain’s reward center and compel people to overeat. In reality, one research suggested that even looking at food images after your meal could trigger hunger.

While it seems that social media brings people together via the Internet, in a large sense it might create the social isolation. That means people will spend increasing amounts of time on social networks, they experience less face-to-face interaction. In reality, scientist have assessed social isolation in different studies, and have determined that it could lead to a change in psychological, emotional and physical problems, containing depression, anxiety, somatic complaints as well as other issues. Actually, social isolation can impair brain hormones, which is similar reason socially isolated people experience tremendous levels of stress, anxiety aggression, and other emotional issues.

Has social media ruined people? I do not think so. Nevertheless, there have been some negative effects of social media on people. It is critical for everyone to remember that in order to get full advantages and minimize the disadvantages of social media, they should balance the way it changes their lives, both personally and socially.

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